Doesn’t it seem incredible that the DIA, when presented with an enquiry that on the surface appears to be more than dodgy, chooses to get a local investigator to phone one of the people involved, that investigator issues a warning to that person that things are being looked at for any future applications, chooses not to follow up with the appropriate people within the pokie fund – even when these people have what appears to be solid evidence that moves were made to obscure just who was really asking for grants. Did the DIA investigate with people like SPARC? Not to my knowledge. Seems to me that when anything is just a little bit too hard then the DIA run for the hills. Frankly, I can’t think of any work that the DIA have done in recent times that has really resulted in anything other than warning dodgy operations into becoming more covert.

*Sport New Zealand (Sport NZ) is the new name for the government organisation responsible for sport and recreation (formerly SPARC). -Eds

2 responses to “Department of Internal Affairs, the gambling authority”

Suddenly, it’s all on again at DIA. Media pressure and other concerns in the public eye have shifted ‘perspectives’ and the ‘bureaucrats’ have crawled out of bed. Interesting times.

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### ODT Online Thu, 17 May 2012Pokies trust under scrutiny
By Hamish McNeilly
The Office of the Auditor-general is looking at the trust embroiled in an alleged pokies funding scandal involving the Otago Rugby Football Union. An Auditor-general spokeswoman confirmed recently it had been asked to “look at a range of issues relating to The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF) in the last few years”. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) last month confirmed it was “in the process of completing an in-depth audit” of TTCF.

The pokie trust was a major funder of the financially troubled ORFU, which was involved in the purchase of three Auckland bars that had gaming machines aligned to TTCF. The relationship is alleged to have been behind the more than $5 million in grants given to the cash-strapped union by TTCF.